Born in Kirriemuir, Scotland, on May 9, 1860, Sir James Matthew Barrie was a chief member of the Kailyard School of novelist in Scotland. He published his first work of fiction, Better Dead, in 1887. This was followed by When a Man’s Single (1888) and My Lady Nicotine (1890). Excessively sentimental, these novels failed to sell. The Little Minister, his next sentimental novel, became immensely popular on its publication in 1891. It was dramatized in 1897. Sentimental Tommy (1896) and Tommy and Grizel (1900), his two ‘Tommy’ novels, were a study of sentimentalism.
With the beginning of the twentieth century, Barrie concentrated on theatre. The Little White Bird, a fantasy fairy tale, was first published in 1902. It introduced the character of Peter Pan, a naughty young boy who can fly and never grows up. Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up was first staged in 1904. It was published in novel form with the title Peter and Wendy in October 1911 by Hodder and Stoughton in U.K. and Charles Scribner’s Sons in U.S.A. It is Barrie’s most famous work and continues to remain widely popular.
Barrie’s other notable and successful works include Half an Hour (1913), A Kiss for Cinderella (1916), The Will (1917), Dear Brutus (1917), Mary Rose (1920) and The Twelve Pound Look (1921). The Boy David (1936) was his final play. He died of pneumonia on June 19, 1937.